Reduction of Demand for Drugs by Incorporation of Elasticity

Prohibited drugs have been one of the major concerns of the federal government for the past decades. Various negative effects of prohibited drugs not only on the user itself but also on the immediate community of the latter have been identified. Due to this, various programs has been launched by the federal government just to regulate and prevent citizens from drug addiction. One of the said government projects to minimize drug addiction would be the intensification of drug treatments aside from the border patrolling etc. The question now would be which of the identified two governments program will be more effective?

Since prohibited drugs are addictive, users will continue to buy the said good even if there is a high risk involving its usage, not to mention that it is expensive (Kuehlwein, 2007). In other words, drug users will continue to buy as long as their will be someone who will supply them with those prohibited drugs regardless how much will it cost. Therefore, the intensification of drug treatment programs would be more effective as compared to the border patrolling since the former will reduce the addiction of the drug users which will eventually shifts its demand elasticity towards elastic demand.

On the other hand, border patrolling will only lower down the supply of prohibited drugs in the market which only further increases its price level due to possible shortage as authorities on borders confiscate more prohibited drugs. At the end of the day, the root of the problem will not be solved by only patrolling on borders since drug users will always find ways on how to get marijuana or cocaine on the streets.

This makes the intensification of drug treatment programs more effective since this attacks the root of the problem by minimizing the drug dependency of users which eventually leads to quitting drug usage. At this point, it is already clear that through reducing the demand of drug users to prohibited drugs will solve the said problem of the government more effectively than with the border patrolling. It would be better on the part of the federal government to concentrate more on the drug treatment programs than with border patrolling. Appendix

With the drug treatment program, the elasticity of demand of drug users will shift from being inelastic to being elastic. The good thing with this will be, under the elastic demand; by the time drug users will quit using prohibited drugs, there is a big possibility that they will no longer go back into being drug addicts since they are no longer drug dependent. Whereas, border patrolling will do only no harm on the demand of the drug users and at the same time will only boost the prices of prohibited drugs on the streets as shown by demand curve1.

Demand curve 1 is inelastic while demand curve 2 is elastic and the latter is the end effect of the intensification of drug treatment programs. Reference Kuehlwein, M. (2007). Cocaine and the Elasticity of Demand. Retrieved February 21, 2008, from http://images. google. com. ph/imgres? imgurl=http://www. unc. edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/GreatIdeas/ART/GI05-12. gif&imgrefurl=http://www. unc. edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/GreatIdeas/02-CoreMicro/GI-05. htm&h=411&w=909&sz=10&hl=tl&start=13&um=1&tbnid=wBaZSi2QPBBJ3M:&tbnh=66&tbnw=147&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dinelastic%2Bdemand%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dtl%26sa%3DN